A blog about politics, education, Ireland, culture and travel. I am Conor Ryan, Dublin-born former adviser to Tony Blair and David Blunkett on education. Views expressed on this blog are written in a personal capacity.

Monday, 3 September 2012

I've written this column for the September edition of Public Finance magazine:

There’s little that Michael Gove and his advisers like more than
crunching numbers. The education secretary is very proud of the
mountains of data, previously shared only with schools, that are now
publicly available.

So, the figures for academies and free schools appear encouraging. By
July, 1,590 English schools – mostly successful secondaries – had
chosen greater independence as academies. Another 540 will convert this
term, making more than half of England’s 3,200 secondary schools
academies, although just 6% of primaries.

Another 367 schools are sponsored academies, with external support,
often from a school chain such as Ark or Harris, used to improve
standards. Some 280 are close to approval, including 187 poorly
performing primaries.

In terms of free schools – new academies sponsored by parents,
teachers, charities or faith groups – 68 are opening this term, adding
to the two dozen already open; 102 more are planned, some focusing on
special educational needs or ‘alternative’ provision for disaffected
youngsters.

But these numbers alone won’t produce better results. And this new
school year will test the effectiveness of the coalition’s laissez-faire
approach.

It is easier to persuade a school to convert to academy status than
to transform a failing school. And while some converter academies chose
independence to change their curriculum or timetable, three-quarters did
so to improve their financial position and avoid budget cuts.

Nationally funded academies receive extra money for services
previously provided by local authorities, often greatly exceeding their
value. For secondary schools, this could add several hundred thousand
pounds to their annual budget. Significantly, Gove now plans to reduce
these differentials, making converting less attractive.

But he must also persuade converters to support weaker schools. Gove
resisted making this a condition of their funding, so relatively few
have done so. This is particularly a problem for primary schools. Some
attempts to force change have attracted local opposition. A bigger
obstacle is the absence of sponsors.

The big chains have focused on secondary schools. While they will
sponsor a few primaries, they won’t support hundreds. Gove needs
successful schools to step in, but his refusal to link such change to
the extra cash has made his task harder.

His other primary problem is whether there will be enough places. The
focus on free schools – some in areas with little demand for new
schools – has led to a potential shortage of places for primary-age
children, particularly in cities. The Department for Education gave
£500m to help resolve this in April, but now estimates that 736,000 more
places will be needed by 2020. Meeting this demand would cost at least
£3bn extra a year.

Some schools are considering double shifts to cope. If significant
numbers of children don’t have a place, the emphasis on free schools
could become a political headache.

Shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg has already shifted Labour’s
position from opposition to free schools to focusing new schools on
meeting parental demand.

The government says its main goal is narrowing the educational gap
between rich and poor pupils – poorer children perform significantly
worse at GCSE and in tests at age 11 than others.

Yet without the right levers, it might fail to do so. Already, there
is evidence that the pupil premium, which gives schools extra cash for
pupils entitled to free school meals, is not being used where it might
have most impact. A Sutton Trust study showed that 28% of teachers did
not know how the cash was being used, and others were using it in ways
that had little proven impact.

The government has no way to ensure that the pupil premium – which is
set to absorb £2.5bn of the education budget by 2015 – is well spent or
to link it to outcomes. Indeed, critics believe the premium could stand
as a metaphor for the coalition’s education reforms: strong on inputs
but weak on outcomes. This school year, Gove must show that his reforms
can deliver results – and not just with the low-hanging fruit.

Publications

Excellence in Education (2005)

About Me

Dublin-born in 1963, since September 2012 I have been Director of Research and Communications for the Sutton Trust. I was previously senior adviser to David Blunkett from 1993-2001 and Tony Blair's senior education adviser from 2005-7. I have also been an independent writer and consultant. I am the author (with Cyril Taylor) of Excellence in Education (David Fulton, 2004)and Freedom from Failure (CPS, 2002); and editor of Bac or Basics (SMF, 2004) and Staying the Course (SMF, 2008), co-editor with Julian Astle of a book on Academies (Centreforum, 2008) and author of Lessons for Life (HTI, 2011). I have also written many articles for the Guardian, Independent, Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Times, Sunday Times, TES, Irish Times, Public Finance, New Statesman and Tribune, among other publications, and contributed to many national and local radio and TV news programmes in the UK and Ireland. I am a director at a multi-academy trust and a trustee of the National Foundation for Educational Research.
All views expressed on this blog are my own and appear in a personal capacity.